Harry Groener -- Articles
Night Mayor
by David Richardson
Cult Times #50, November 1999
"Gosh, I'm feeling chipper, who's for a root beer?" He's invincible, he's over a hundred years old, and he's the Mayor of Sunnydale. Harry Groener shares his vision of being all-powerful...
Evil usually takes a monstrous form on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Over the past three years we've seen the Chosen One defeat pointy-fanged vampires, deformed demons, spirits and even a tentacled creature that rose from the Hellmouth. Yet Buffy's most dangerous adversary is also the most charming and human: Richard Wilkins III, the Mayor of Sunnydale.
Introduced at the start of Season Three, Wilkins initially seemed to be an engaging recurring character who would add some colour to the schemes of Mr. Trick (K Todd Freeman), the new vampire in town. Before long, however, we discovered that the Mayor was the true villain of the piece and his planned Ascension into demonic form would be catastrophic for Sunnydale.
Wilkins was played with relish by Harry Groener, who recieved rave reviews from both fans and critics alike. After all, who can resist a character whose schedule includes: "Meeting with PTA. Haircut. Become invincible."
"A number of fans have told me that one of the reasons they enjoy this character so much is that he doesn't have a lot of prosthetics on," Groener tells Cult Times. "There's not a horn or teeth or fangs or anything like that. He's just a normal, simple guy who is incredibly evil and powerful. This seems to be much more terrifying than actually seeing some horrible creature."
Groener is amazed by the positive reaction of the mainstream press to his performance, but is quick to point out that he was working with quality material.
"Often the parts that you play on television, even if they are the bad guys, are not that well written," he reasons. "This is wonderfully written and Joss Whedon has a way of writing in the little quirks, the little idiosyncracies.
"The Mayor is a very sure and confident man. He knows it's all going to happen the way he planned it as long as a few little people just don't get in the way, which he doesn't seem too concerned about. He'll use whoever he needs to gain his objective.
"There's only one problem and that's when Faith [the rebellious second Slayer, played by Eliza Dushku] enters the picture. That's when his commitment changes; he takes on a more paternal role and he becomes much more emotionally involved with this person, which I think is a wonderful twist."
The Mayor's finest hour came in Graduation Day Part II, the cataclysmic season finale in which he finally ascends -- during his speech at the graduation ceremony! Fans were somewhat frustrated when executives on the WB networks decided to pull the episode from their schedule, concerned about similiarities to the Columbine tragedy. However, after a two month delay, it finally aired in July.
"The delay was a little frustrating but actually it built up a lot of publicity," says Groener. "What was so pleasing was that when it finally did air many reviewers said that it was well worth the wait. Which is great because it could have been an anti-climax, with the reviewers saying, "Oh, we've waited for it and it really wasn't very good."
The Mayor finally shed his human form in that episode's climax, becoming a huge, snake-like creature that trashes Sunnydale High School. These scenes were realized using CGI, although the actor recalls the strage effects process that was used for his Ascension.
"They rigged a suit on me that was supposed to break away into a zillion pieces," he explains. "All these pieces had a tiny bit of fishing line on then that went away from the suit. What was supposed to happen was that as he begins to transform and his body begins to grow, the suit sort of begins to tear.
"We did it in front of a green screen and there were like 15 to 20 little lines. There were four costume people and each of them had five strings and at a certain point they had to pull. It's a very strange feeling, standing in front of a podium, imagining what is happening to your head and your face as you transform and there are four people pulling you in opposite directions and the suit really isn't breaking the way it's supposed to break. You have to stay still. It was a very funny feeling but the suit tore enough. We could only do it once -- we couldn't re-rig it."
Sci-Fi fans should also remember Groener for his wonderful guest role as the Betazoid Tam Elbrun in the stand-out episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation, Tin Man.
"Apparently it was a very popular episode among the fans," he smiles. "At the time I was also doing Dear John. They were shot on the same lot at Paramount. I was at lunch and one of the producers of Star Trek said, 'We should get you on the show at some point'. I said, 'I would love to be on it!' The only stipulation from the Dear John people was that the character be nothing like the character I was playing on their show."
Groener recalls that he spent several days working on both series, which meant shuttling between the two studios.
"I was going back and forth -- shooting Star Trek and then going back to rehearse Dear John. At one point I was in costume and make up with these contacts in my eyes and it was a strange thing doing Ralph in the sitcom {dressed as an alien}! It was a ball!"
Later Groener would play The Magistrate in Voyager's Sacred Ground, in between other episodic work that included Law And Order, St. Elsewhere, Mad About You and Sleepwalkers. You can also catch him in the movies Patch Adams, Amistad and Brubaker, yet despite such a rich and varied career, it's obvious that Buffy the Vampire Slayer remains close to the actor's heart. "I was contracted for eight episodes and I got to do 11 -- it was a very lucky gig for me," he concludes. "I'm just sorry that there aren't more -- but you never know. I am just crossing my fingers that they'll think, 'It'd be good to have the Mayor back!'"
The above article appeared in the November 1999 issue of Cult Times and is reprinted w/o permission. You can buy an issue at Cult Times' website.